Chapter 6 : Pedals and Dreams
Passion for Pedalling: Cycling was a thrilling adventure when I was a kid . To me, those who bicycled were heroes. I saw similar 'heroes' performing daring stunts at the Gemini Circus. Their acrobatic feats on a single bicycle, with one rider stacked on top of another, left me amazed. I vowed to learn cycling someday, and it became my life's ambition. Later, I developed a similar desire to learn driving, and I even got to drive a car and a bullock cart for a while. As a young boy, I was physically frail yet quite stubborn. However, I had an unquenchable thirst for learning new things. My desire to learn cycling grew stronger day by day. This was around 1960 in Mangalagiri, a small town with rarely any motor vehicles on the main road. We had more 'goodu rickshaws' (a type of rickshaw with a fixed top) and later we saw 'seat rickshaws' (a type of rickshaw with a folding top) in Guntur Town. One day, I visited a bicycle rental shop, wearing a blue-co...